Tuesday, May 30, 2017

This is the Essential Phone. The newest company and phone to try and shake up the Android smartphone market.

Andy Rubin’s new company, Essential, just unveiled their new website which happens to have their two new products on it. Yep, so Essential has a phone on the way, along with a smart home hub. We’ll have more details on all of it very soon, but wanted to at least share with you the specs for the phone, dubbed the PH-1. Essential is launching the phone in the US to start, and it’s filled the phone with radios that should make it work on all major carriers. And because Essential seems to be hanging its hat on the idea of shipping phones without extraneous junk (the designers don’t even put a logo on the exterior), chances seem good that there won’t be a ton of extraneous software laded on to slow the phone down.

The PH-1 is fully stocked with the highest end specs you can find from what we can tell. You have an edge-to-edge front display that weighs in at 5.71-inches and with a QHD resolution. You get a Snapdragon 835 processor powering it all, 128GB UFS 2.1 storage, 4GB RAM, 13MP dual camera setup, magnetic connector to make the phone somewhat modular, and a premium body made of titanium and ceramic. And yes, it runs Android.

It’s a unique take on a big screen that makes the phone stand out — and it’s smart too. Often, the status bar at the top of an Android phone doesn’t fill that middle space with icons, so it’s efficient. The screen does leave some bezel at the bottom of the phone, but nevertheless it’s as close to the whole front of a phone being display as I’ve seen.

There is no traditional 3.5mm headphone jack and will charge wirelessly or through the USB-C port (same as the LG G6 and Galaxy S8). There are also magnetic pins on the top of the device for extra connectivity for accessories like a 360 degree camera.

The Essential Phone also has a good take on the dual-camera systems we’ve seen on other phones. Rather than use the second lens for telephoto or bokeh, it’s using it for a monochrome sensor, just like Huawei has been doing with the P9 and P10. That second sensor will be able to take in more light than a traditional color camera, meaning it can be combined with the regular 13-megapixel for better low-light shots. The front-facing camera is in line with current expectations too: an 8-megapixel sensor that can also capture 4K video.

Essential is clearly planning on releasing a very well-made phone: the screen looks promising, it has no annoying logos, and it is built with a combination of titanium and ceramic so it can survive a drop test “without blemish, unlike the aluminum competitor devices” (Those would be Samsung and Apple, if you’re wondering).

The phone will cost $699 and comes in white or black at this time. Additional colors will arrive soon.